BanglaCricket Article

"On any given day, Bangladesh has the capability of making any of the
Test playing nations sweat ..." - the author had penned in this article
in response to a recent (June 3, 2005) article by S. Rajesh in his Friday column
in Cricinfo. In light of the win against Australia, this article is timely and
somewhat prescient.

Is Bangladesh really struggling?

by Azim Fahmi

Published: 18th June, 2005

In his weekly column in www.cricinfo.com, while addressing Bangladesh?s
struggle, S. Rajesh provides a comparison of several parameters between the
first 19 Tests and the following 16 Tests that Bangladesh had played so far.
In his calculations, despite excluding the results from playing a ?weak?
Zimbabwean team, he points out several areas of progress that Bangladesh had
made.

I would like to rectify Mr. Rajesh on his point of ?Bangladesh have reduced
the deficit between runs scored per wicket and runs conceded per wicket by ten
- that's a 25% improvement?. I think he meant Bangladesh has increased
average runs scored between wickets from 18.55 to 21.38 and reduced the average
number of runs conceded to an opponent between wickets. However, I calculate
those improvements at 15% and 12% respectively. I have also provided the percentages
of improvement in other categories below. The most significant improvement is
the average number of overs batted by Bangladesh in the 1st innings: an improvement
of 28% in sustainability. Another, improvement is a 39% reduction in the number
of runs conceded on average in a first innings lead by an opponent. Although
the results may not align with our expectations as die hard Bangladeshi supporters
and that of the rest of the world, the progress has been steady. Furthermore,
there has been no deterioration in any of the categories mentioned below.

Category

Improvement
between first 19 and next 16 Tests

Runs/wkt scored

15%

Runs/wkt conceded

12%

Ave no. of overs batted

28%

Ave 1st-innings lead
conceded

39%

Runs/over scored

4%

Runs/over conceded

9%

S. Rajesh then brings the statistics of the first 37 Tests played among all
Test playing nation and points out how dreadful our statistics have been. In
trying to prove the gulf of difference between Bangladesh and the rest of the
Test playing nation, he states ?it's easily the worst of all teams?
as ?their 32 defeats after 37 Tests is by far the poorest - South Africa,
with the second-worst record, had only lost 23 at the same stage in their Test
career.

However, I think that the tendency to compare Test playing nations at the juncture
of first 37 Tests is flawed. An example of this is the manner where wins are
trivialized as wins against weaker nations (case in point home series win against
Zimbabwe). The fact remains that it was an official Test match, unless ICC deemed
it otherwise. Similar wins against weaker opponents and 2nd string teams in
guise of a team carrying the national flag (see West Indies section below) or
drawn Tests when maximum 3 days were alllocated for a Test match in the early
days of a nation's cricket history are well documented. If we scrutinize the
backdrop of the first 37 Tests played by the other 9 Test playing nations, it
will be reasonable to say that the Media and some of the so called pundits have
been and are reckless when it comes to criticizing Bangladesh's Test status
and record.

South Africa
South Africa in its first 37 Tests only played England and Australia. They first
played a Test in 1888/89 against England and first drew a Test against Australia
in 1902, which was a 3 day match. The first time they won a Test was in 1905,
at Home, against England. Overall, South Africa played the 37 Tests between
1888/89 and 1913, a span of 24 years.

England & Australia
England first played Test Cricket in 1876 against Australia and played the first
37 Tests through 1892, a span of 16 years. They invented the game and only played
South Africa and Australia during the first 16 years. Australia on the other
hand only played England between 1876 and 1893 for her first 37 Tests.

West Indies
West Indies played their first 37 Tests between 1928 and 1955, in a span of
26 years. Their inaugural 3 Tests in England were all 3 day matches and England
won all 3 of them by inning differences. Their first win against England was
in reality against the Marylebone Cricket Club, although it has been considered
a win against England. While England did England toured under the banner of
MCC, another team was touring NZ at the same time, neither team contained the
top players like Hobbs, Hammond, Sutcliffe, Larwood. An analogy will be claiming
Bangladesh Under-19 team?s unbeaten record in its recent tour of Australia
as that of Bangladesh?s triumph against the mighty Australians.

New Zealand
New Zealand did not have a win in her first 37 Tests between 1929 and 1958/59.
The matches it drew between 1929 and 1949 were all 3 day matches. The first
4 day match she drew was in 1950/51 against England. New Zealand drew the first
5 day match against India in 1955. In Pakistan, they drew 1 of the 3 Tests in
1955 as well. All were 5 day matches. However, there was no play in the first
2 days of the drawn Test. Pakistan won by an innings and 1 run in the 1st Test
in Karachi.

Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka played their 37 Tests between 1981 and 1991 and won 2 Tests in 10
years. Their first drawn match was against Pakistan and that too Sri Lanka almost
won. It should remind the readers of Bangladesh in Multan, Pakistan, where Bangladesh
lost to Pakistan by 1 wicket, God knows what would have happened had Mohammed
Rafique not been chivalrous and asked Shabbir Ahmed to return to his crease
on a live ball or Umpire Ashoka De Silva of Sri Lanka did not make some questionable
decisions against Bangladesh.

India
India played her first 37 Tests between 1932 and 1952 against England, Australia,
West Indies and Pakistan. The first Test in England was a 3 day match and India
lost by 158 runs. In 1933, India hosted England for 3 Tests, all were 4 day
matches. In two of the three Tests, England won by 9 wickets and by 202 runs
respectively. The other 4 day Test resulted in a draw after India managed to
continue batting in the second innings after forced to follow on. It was not
until 1951 that India got her maiden Test win against a second string English
team in Madras. The other two wins during that time was against rookie Pakistan
in 1952. In their maiden visit to Australia, India lost the 5 Test series 4-0:
Australia won by an innings and 226 runs at Brisbane, 2nd Test at Sidney was
drawn because of rain as there was no play on Day 3 & 4, Australia won by
233 runs at Melbourne, Australia won by an innings and 16 runs at Adelaide and
Australia won by an innings and 177 runs at Melbourne. India also lost a 4 day
match to Western Australia at Perth: Western Australia won by 6 runs.

Pakistan
Pakistan had a very impressive entry into Test cricket as they beat India in
her inaugural Test series in 1952. However, further scrutiny will reveal that
majority of the players in the early years of Pakistani national team played
in India?s domestic cricket prior to the partition of the subcontinent
in 1947. All the players were either from Lahore, Punjab or Amritsar, Punjab
Pakistan with the exception of Hanif Mohammad. He was originally from Gujrat,
India and migrated to Pakistan in 1947. Pakistan played her 37th Test in 1962
in a span of 10 years. Nevertheless, Pakistan started playing Test cricket with
a competitive advantage, leveraging India's experience since 1932.

Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe took 7 years to complete 37 Tests and has a reasonable statistics with
3 wins and 19 drawn matches during that period between 1992 and 1999. Recent
results have been abysmal with majority of the quality players not playing for
the national team due to contract dispute and internal feuds.

Bangladesh
Between 1952 and 1971, Bangladesh had been politically and socio-economically
ignored by the "central government" of West Pakistan. Bangladesh (then
known as East Pakistan), despite being part of Pakistan, saw comparatively little
cricket development between 1952 and 1971. Despite winning ICC championship
in 1997, Bangladesh did not have the necessary domestic infrastructure to compete
internationally until recently. Bangladesh is showing significant promise with
the U-15 and U-19 teams. The senior team is relatively competent but still lacks
the temperament of applying themselves when it is needed the most and that too
will be gained through experience, please keep in mind that the team composition
has been relatively volatile and a signifacnt turn around is a negative indicator
of organizational development. In that regard, the selection committe needs
to show more patience.

As S. Rajesh points out in his opening paragraph: ?? the start
was much more than any debut side could have bargained for?, However,
I think the cricket-crazy country is putting too much pressure on the cricketers
way too soon along with the rest of the world. On any given day, Bangladesh
has the capability of making any of the Test playing nations sweat and Bangladesh
has shown that in their matches against Pakistan and West Indies. Issues at
hand are Bangladeshi players' patience and shot selections. The fact that Bangladesh
on the average is increasingly spending more time on the crease during the first
innings of Test matches is promising. The comparison of the first 37 Tests among
all Test playing nations do not do justice to Bangladesh as the timeline, frequency,
diversity of opponents, durations vary significantly among Test playing nations
when respective first 37 Tests are concerned. We must be patient while asking
the players to be patient.

I wish the players will be inspired by their second innings performance at
Chester le street and only take that memory with them into the Natwest series
against Australia and England. All the best wishes to the Tigers! Give us another
day besides 1999 world cup and the home series against Zimbabwe and make us
very proud - deep inside I firmly believe it is not simply wishful thinking!